


Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus

by ETraytin



Series: Seculo Seculorum [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence for Buffy, Canon-typical abuse of Latin for The West Wing, F/M, Season 4 West Wing, Season 7 Buffy, Shared Universe, more tags as they come up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-30 04:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ETraytin/pseuds/ETraytin
Summary: With the First Evil on the rise, her house full of Potentials, and Giles and Wood trying to kill her not-boyfriend, Buffy's life is already complicated enough. Two new Potentials in town isn't going to make things any easier. Especially when those Potentials are Zoey and Annie Bartlet, the First Daughter and First Granddaughter. How do you teach the President's daughter how to slay Turok-han without somebody getting killed?Sequel to Dulce et Decorum





	Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus

**Author's Note:**

> I know it seems like I am starting a new work here, which I swore I wasn't going to do until I finished my other WIPs, but anybody who read Dulce et Decorum knows that I stopped that story because my 31 days were over, not because it was finished. It was a story with a small audience but a vocal one, and I have been moved by your howls of anguish at where I left off with that story. So here is Chapter One of Part 2, with more to come. Hope you enjoy, feedback is love. The more comments I get, the more I'm motivated to do stuff. Q.E.D. ;-)

The phone rang just after nine am, startling Buffy out of the sleep she’d finally managed to fall into around six. She groaned into her pillow and thought about ignoring it, but remembered that she was the only one around to answer right now. Dawn was still going to school, at least for the moment, and with Giles… well, Giles wasn’t welcome in Buffy’s house right now, much less welcome to answer her phone at absurdly early hours of the morning. If she let it keep ringing, one of the Potentials would probably answer it, and gods only knew how that would go. 

Rolling to the edge of her bed, she fumbled for the extension phone and picked it up, trying not to sound quite as groggy as she was. “‘Lo?” It wasn’t a very good try. 

“Um, hello?” A young woman’s voice on the other end of the phone, not one Buffy recognized. She was getting used to that these days. “Can I please speak to Buffy Summers?” 

Buffy sat up and shook herself to wakefulness. If this was another Potential in danger, she’d better be paying attention. “Yep, that’s me,” she assured the girl. “Who are you?” 

“My name is Zoey,” she said, and Buffy could hear the caution in her voice. “My niece and I, we’re both, um, we both have potential,” she offered, as though maybe the First Evil were bugging the phone and wouldn’t see through her clever ruse. “Like the kind you’d want to watch…”

“Gotcha,” Buffy said, mostly to end the suffering. “You’re Potentials. Are you close to me? Are you in danger right this minute?” 

“Not right this minute,” Zoey told her. “We were attacked, but we got away. We ran away,” she admitted. “We heard that you were gathering up Potentials and that maybe we’d be safe there.” 

Buffy laughed, she couldn’t help it. “I don’t know about safe,” she said baldly, “but we’re getting girls together. If you come at least you’re not going to be alone. And we’re working on a plan.” 

“Okay,” Zoey said, not sounding any more certain than she had at the beginning of the call. “We’re coming into town, we’ll be there in about four hours. My mom’s getting us transportation at the airport. Can we meet you someplace and talk?” 

“Your mom is coming with you?” Buffy asked, bemused. “Does she know?” 

“Yeah, um, yeah, she was a Potential too, a long time ago, but the Bringers didn’t go after her, as far as we know, so I guess she’s not anymore. Annie’s mom isn’t a potential, but she’s coming too, and our Watcher…” 

Now Buffy was definitely wishing she’d gotten a little more sleep. “Okay, stop with the talking one sec so I can catch up. You’re a Potential and your niece is a potential, and your mom was a Potential, and you’re all coming to Sunnydale with your sister and your Watcher? In four hours?” 

Zoey was silent for a moment. “And a few other people,” she admitted. 

“Okay first off, we don’t have anywhere near enough sleeping bags,” Buffy told her. “And the shower situation here, it’s not good.” 

“We have a place to stay,” Zoey assured her quickly. “There’s a big house on the north side of town that the government seized for tax evasion, I guess? We were able to get access to it, and because it’s a home, it should be better protection than staying in a hotel.” 

“Oh, okay then.” Buffy blew out a relieved breath. At least the Clampetts of the vampire-slaying community weren’t going to all be piling into Revello drive. “Yeah, I guess we should meet up. There’s a place in town called the Espresso Pump. You can’t miss it, there are only like seven storefronts on Main Street. Meet me there at three o’clock and we’ll, you know, debrief.” That was a Riley word, and one that had always sounded vaguely dirty to Buffy, but it seemed to fit the moment. 

“The Espresso Pump, three o’clock Pacific time,” Zoey said, sounding like she was repeating the information for someone else. There was a brief pause and the susurrus of voices outside Buffy’s hearing. “Um, how many seats does the Espresso Pump have, and how many windows?” 

“What?” Buffy asked. 

“My friends want to know.” Zoey sounded embarrassed now. 

“Ah, maybe eight tables for two, two booths and a conversation area with a couple couches?” Buffy offered, searching her memory. “And it’s got a big window storefront, I guess. Why do your friends need to know?” 

“They want to keep us safe,” Zoey replied simply. “They worry a lot.” 

“Now’s the time for it,” Buffy agreed, though her spidey sense was still tingling. Those were not normal questions for people coming to meet somebody they wanted to have help them. “Listen, if this is a setup-” 

“It’s not, I swear it’s not!” Zoey exclaimed, sounding very sincere. “We need your help, and maybe we can help you out too, everybody helping each other. Those Bringers tried to break into my dorm room, and they killed people trying to get to Annie. We could go literally anywhere in the world but we have no idea where we might be safe, and even if Annie and Mom and I stay okay, a lot of people could get hurt because of us. I just want a way to stop this, please!” 

“All right, all right.” Buffy blew out a long breath. “I’ll meet with you, we’ll talk, you’ll explain a little more about these friends of yours and we’ll go from there. I’ll see you at three.” 

“Thank you,” Zoey said, relieved. “We’ll see you then.” 

Buffy hung up the phone and stretched, casting one last longing glance at her bed before getting up and heading for the shower. The water was no better than lukewarm and somebody had used most of her really expensive color-protect shampoo, but at least she was able to get clean and wake up a little more. From the sound of things, Kennedy had the girls out in the backyard again for training. Much as she didn’t get along with Kennedy, Buffy had to appreciate her just for the few hours of quiet empty house every day. She was able to go down and eat her breakfast (a carefully hidden Pop Tart) and drink her coffee in peace, then check on Spike (sleeping) and start the laundry (mostly Walmart specials in teenage girl sizes) before anybody started filtering back in. After that, it was mostly mediating squabbles over clothes and snacks, then a quick group lesson in where exactly the heart is located on an average vampire for anyone who didn’t already know. By the time noon rolled around, she was happy to seal herself into her bedroom with the phone for a moment’s peace. 

She gave herself five minutes to decompress, then called Xander. Even though she knew he was working, it was still a little weird to hear him answer with a very professional sounding “Xander Harris.” When had they all gotten so grown-up and responsible? It kinda sucked. 

“Hey there, pal ‘o mine, how’s the construction business?” she chirped, deliberately trying to infuse some old-Buffy cheerfulness into her voice. 

Xander laughed a little. “Banging and grinding all day long, just like my nightclub days. Whatcha need?” 

“You’re off at two-thirty today, right?” 

“Yeah, they don’t want us working while the kids are getting out of school, otherwise we’d have to give them all little hard hats. Have I got plans now?” 

“How would you like to come with me to meet a Potential who’s apparently brought her entire extended family to Sunnydale to hang out? I’m meeting her at the Espresso Pump at three, and something seems just a little hinky.” 

“You buying the super-sugary caffeine goodness?” 

“I could probably be persuaded,” she assured him. “I’m trying to get better about the whole running into danger alone thing.” 

“Speaking as your fray-adjacent-est friend, I appreciate that. I’ll see you then,” he promised. 

With meeting set and backup organized, Buffy waded into the mess that was lunch with the Potentials. The meal selection was hardly elegant, bologna sandwiches or PBJs with apples and tortilla chips, but somehow it was still a major production getting everyone fed. Potentials didn’t eat quite as much as a full-blown Slayer, but they still had healthy appetites and most of them hadn’t shown up with any money to speak of. Buffy wasn’t sure what they’d have done if Mom’s last life insurance policy, one Buffy hadn’t even known existed, hadn’t paid out unexpectedly last month. It wasn’t exactly riches, but it paid the bills and bought the groceries and took the money pressure off Buffy’s shoulders for awhile. She was pretty sure she’d have been dangling at the end of her rope if she’d had just one more thing to worry about right now. 

Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat wasn’t Buffy’s idea of a yummy and nutritious lunch, but she felt guilty eating better than people who were in the most technical sense of the word her houseguests. Maybe she’d get a croissant at the Espresso Pump and what the Potentials didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. 

She was just getting ready to walk out the door when Dawn came home from school. “You’re all snappy dresser today,” Dawn observed curiously. 

“What, you’re saying I’m not a snappy dresser everyday?” Buffy asked. 

“Lately you’ve been more Mom jeans and sweatshirts than snappy,” Dawn pointed out with a grin that was positively evil. “To say nothing of the mom hair.” 

Even though Buffy knew, knew for one hundred percent sure that Dawn was messing with her, her hand flew to her head anyway as her mouth formed a perfect O of outrage. “I do not have mom hair! Or mom jeans! I don’t even own mom jeans! I have an every-so-slightly square-waisted frame!” she protested. 

“Whatever, mom-jeans,” Dawn shot back, still grinning. “But hey, I said you looked nice today. What’s the occasion?” 

“Got a meeting at the Espresso Pump, which you’re about to make me late for. I’ll be back in a couple hours, gotta go!” Buffy brushed past her, only for Dawn to drop her backpack in the middle of the foyer and follow her out the door. 

“I’ll come with you!” Dawn decided cheerfully. “If you’ve got a meeting, you need backup. Who are we meeting? Gonna shake down a source? Local witches? How about Clem? He’ll tell you anything he knows for a bag of Funyuns and some coffee.” She trotted along after Buffy like an enthusiastic puppy. “Will you buy me a cappuccino? I haven’t had one in ages!” 

Buffy sighed. “I already have Xander for backup,” she informed Dawn, “and I’m meeting a couple of Potentials who just got to town today. They’re a little weird, weirder than usual,” she added when she saw Dawn’s mouth opening, “and I want to see what’s up with them before we bring them in on anything. They’re bringing their Watcher and everything.” 

“They still have a Watcher? That is weird,” Dawn agreed. “Maybe Giles could sound out the Watcher, see what’s going on… or not,” she added, obviously seeing the “hell no” written on Buffy’s face. 

“I think we can muddle through this one on our own,” Buffy told her. “And Xander should be plenty of backup. You have homework, right?” Dawn’s guilty look gave her away. Buffy pointed firmly back towards the house. “Go, do homework. One of us has to get a college degree someday, and it really-really isn’t going to be me. Remember that if you flunk out of high school, I take that insurance money we set aside and go on a spa trip to Paris.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Dawn muttered, but she slunk off in the direction of the house. Dawn’s rebellious phases waxed and waned these days, but right now she was being at least superficially compliant. Buffy was glad, she had more than enough to deal with right now. She hoped it wouldn’t take too long to sort these new Potentials out, she still had to figure out dinner tonight and then take the gang out for slay-practice. No rest for the slayers of wickedness, she decided as she headed off at a brisk walk towards the coffee shop. 

 

_Ante Bellum:_ Before the war

_Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus:_ We will find a way or make one.


End file.
